Bacon Author:Francis Bacon Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: be without some great person, one or rather Essay xv. more, of military valour, near unto them, for of Seditions the repressing of seditions in their begin-an ni... more »ngs; for without that, there useth to be more trepidation in court upon the first breaking out of troubles than were fit; and the state runneth the danger of that which Tacitus saith, 'and such was the state of feeling, that a few dared to perpetrate the worst of crimes; more wished to do so,— all submitted to it.' But let such military persons be assured, and well reputed of, rather than factious and popular; holding also good correspondence with the other great men in the state, or else the remedy is worse than the disease. I had rather believe all the fables in the Essay xvi. legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, Of Atheism. than that this universal frame is without a mind; and, therefore, God never wrought miracle to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion; for while xvi. the mind of man looketh upon second causes of Atheism, scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate, and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity. Nay, even that school which is most accused of atheism doth most demonstrate religion: that is, the school of Leucippus, and Democritus, and Epicurus: for it is a thousand times more credible that four mutable elements, and one immutable fifth essence, duly and eternally placed, need no God, than that an army of infinite small portions or seeds unplaced, should have produced this order and beauty without a divine marshal. The Scripture saith, 'the fool hath said i...« less